The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, has assured that, despite the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have had «great success» in defending Kherson and Kharkov, it is «a difficult task» to regain the entire Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow.
«Kherson and Kharkov, physically and geographically, are relatively small compared to the whole, so the task of getting the Russians physically out of Ukraine is very difficult. And it’s not going to happen in the next few weeks unless the Russian Army collapses completely, which is unlikely,» he has explained.
Milley has stressed that Ukraine has done «a tremendous job in defeating» the Russian Army in Kherson and Kharkov. «And the probability of Russia achieving its strategic goals of conquering Ukraine, of invading Ukraine, the probability of that happening is almost zero,» he stressed, adding that it may be possible, but that he does not see it feasible militarily speaking.
The head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff has also stressed that Moscow occupies about 20 percent of the Ukrainian territory, which is about 900 kilometers long and about 75-80 kilometers deep. «So it’s not a small piece of land,» he has stressed.
«They have suffered a tremendous amount of casualties, but it has also made a mobilization and called in more people. So the Russians have been reinforced and still have significant Russian combat power inside Ukraine,» he has explained at a press conference.
Finally, he specified that Moscow «is suffering a lot», so it wants to negotiate while indicating that «maybe there is a political solution». «All I am saying is that there is a possibility. That’s all I’m saying,» he concluded.